Tag Archives: Linkoping

So hard to believe we woke up in Linköping this morning and are now in Reykjavik. We slept well, even though our hotel was on the main square. After breakfast, I took a quick walk around the square to take pictures. This statue caught my eye. Will have to research the story (or depend on one of my librarians friends) when we get back.

The drive back to Stockholm was easy. We returned the car and checked into our flight. Flying between European countries is so easy now, no customs or immigration. You can even keep your shoes on going through security!

A short 3 hour flight later, we were in Iceland. Ellen absolutely fell in love with it from our first visit. There isn’t a lot to see in Reykjavik. Even less when it is 50 degrees with a fierce wind. But the Hallgrímskirkja Church is a tremendous sight, even more so tonight with the clouds glowing an orangish color.

Our first (and my largest) priority was a visit to 66°NORTH, an Icelandic clothing company we had discovered during our last visit. Their clothes are expensive but exceptionally light and warm. And they are not The North Face, which everyone and their brother wears. We each got several items.

We took a quick walk through town, and then went to dinner at Sjávargrillið, a seafood restaurant in town. We had eaten at a really fancy seafood restaurant last visit, but it had closed. Sjávargrillið was a little more touristy, but the hustle and bustle (and American tourists) were more than compensated for by great food. We both had salmon, with all sorts of interesting things included. Just take a look at the pictures of their dishes!

It was too windy to walk around much after dinner, and we were a little tired after getting back 2 hours by heading west. So we walked down by the water and snapped a few pictures before heading to bed. The sun doesn’t set until after 10:30 here, so still light even late.

Today was a travel day, covering about half the distance from Gothenburg to Stockholm. We took a quick walk around Gothenburg this morning before leaving. Still just as beautiful.

To get to our destination today, we had to drive around Lake Vättern. There were times that the view was just breathtaking. Ellen likes the water. We also stopped for gas for the first time. I don’t know how big the tank is, but we had driven over 1000km. And with gas around $8/gallon, the fill-up was just around $150! No wonder there are so many Priuses around here!

Our destination today was Linköping, a university town about two hours from Stockholm. There is a castle and a church that we wanted to see. We had to rush, as the castle closed at 4. We did a quick tour of both.

After we finished, Ellen’s view of the water made her want to sit near the lake and have a drink. We initially decided to ditch technology and just head west. It was kinda working, but we were heading through small farm roads without really knowing how far we had to go. Eventually we looked at a map and picked a target, Motala. And we found a nice place right on the water. Ellen had a glass of wine and I had a Czech beer. And the sun and the water were just about perfect.

We decided we wanted something a little different for dinner, so we went to a Vietnamese/Thai place, Sol & RIs. It was a few minute walk from the main square, so it was a little calmer. The menu was only in Swedish and the waitress spoke little English, but we managed to figure out a good set of dishes: vegetarian spring rolls, chicken and cashew nuts and a beef dish.

We walked back to the square, which was quite lively. The students seemed to be arriving back for the semester or something. We had dessert and did people watching, then went into our hotel, which is a gorgeous old building.

Tomorrow we are off to Iceland to finish off the vacation. We view it as the continuation of the couple of days we were there 2 years ago.